Her comments followed the Charleston by Milo Manheim and Witney Carson that earned two 9s and an 8 for 26 points. That landed them atop the leaderboard, tied with Tinashe and Brandon Armstrong’s Argentine tango and Juan Pablo Di Pace and Cheryl Burke’s quickstep.

With few exceptions, the cast of Season 27 is getting some of the highest scores I’ve seen so early in a season. There were seven 9s given by the judges, and with those kind of scores, can perfect 10s be far behind?

The night was an upbeat tribute to New York City, and the set designers, dancers and musicians spared nothing in bringing a bit of the Big Apple to life on the stage. In addition, clips from “Good Morning America” and “Live With Kelly and Ryan” were scattered throughout the show; and Tiler Peck, principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson of “Modern Family” made appearances. Even Mark Ballas appeared via FaceTime from his stint in “Kinky Boots” on Broadway.

In general, the overall NYC theme added a vibe to the program that seemed to provide a spark to the celebs and pros. After the dances, 10 of the 12 couples had scores within six points of each other.

My top three dances

1. I loved the Charleston by Milo and Witney. Yes, he’s only 17, and the two are both full of energy, but they are really dancing well. Judge Bruno Tonioli said Milo was “exhilarating and bursting with excitement,” and head judge Len Goodman commented that “the cast this season is fantastic.”

2. I’ll admit that Mary Lou Retton is a favorite of mine, but I never thought that the girl who won the Olympic gold medal in gymnastics had a shortage of self-confidence. With the guidance of pro partner Sasha Farber, she really improved this week, scoring an 8 and two 7s for their waltz. But what really got me was when she said, “It was great. I felt pretty.”

3. They scored near the top and Len called the Argentine tango by Alexis Ren and Alan Bersten, “a great mix of precision and passion.” He added that the sexy dance was “the best stuff done so far this season.” Incredibly for Week 2, their dance received a 9 and two 8s for 25.

In addition

This season so far, there are quite a few celebs who are succeeding far beyond what they believed they could. Nancy McKeon fractured her foot but pulled off a nice cha cha with Val Chmerkovskiy; Danielle Umstead is blind, so she and pro Artem Chigvintsev had to dig deep to accomplish dance steps, all while fighting cases of the flu; and Joe Amabile may be getting low scores with Jenna Johnson, but he was a total non-dancer from the beginning.

Tuesday — Night 2 of Week 2 — will be a tribute to Las Vegas, and viewers can expect to see appearances by Blue Man Group, Boyz II Men and Donny Osmond, as well as other surprises. There will be a double elimination following Monday’s judges’ and viewers’ votes and Tuesday’s scores. I don’t know if only the bottom four or five couples will be in jeopardy and scheduled to dance, as in Week 1. See you after Night 2 — keep dancing!

John Travolta’s mob movie flop “Gotti” and President Donald Trump were nominated on Monday for the Razzie Awards for the worst films of 2018 after a year that organizers called full of disasters - both on and off screen.